America Needs Its Nerds Analysis

The nerd trope is ubiquitous to American media and culture. Usually, it’s an academically ambitious kid who has beyond thick glasses, tucked pants, and acne: a target. Leonid Fridman takes on this stereotype in “America Needs Its Nerds.” Fridman condemns America’s neglect and contempt for intellect. He argues that America’s perspective is self-destructive through the use of definition, example, and patriotism.

In the beginning of the passage, Fridman defines geek; a word casually thrown around to describe someone who is smart. He writes “A geek... is a street performer who shocks the public by biting the heads off live chickens”(paragraph 2). This definition provides the reader with imagery of a freak, not an academic. Hence, Fridman shows the condescension that society has for intellectuals exists even on a linguistic level.

Then, for the bulk of the passage, Fridman offers various examples of nerds being looked down upon to convey the issue’s pervasiveness. This is seen when Fridman refers to Harvard when he describes “anti-intellectualism is rampant”(paragraph 3). By citing an esteemed school that prides itself on academic achievement and rigor, Fridman shows how far reaching intellectual devaluation is. In other words, even places that claim to have academically driven

cultures fail to prioritize and respect the academically driven.
After establishing that America has an unwarranted negative perspective of nerds and dorks, Fridman hypothesizes the harms this outlook could have on America.

Fridman asks his audience, How can America compete with other countries if intellectual ability takes backseat to trivial matters? In Fridman’s call to action, he resorts to patriotism when he pleads “For America’s sake, the anti-intellectual values… must be fought”(paragraph 5). Fridman’s patriotic tone frames the issue as a matter of national security. This allows Fridman to draw concern and motivation from his audience, to make them believe that America’s perspective is self-destructive and that urgent action is

necessary.
Altogether, Fridman chose to appeal to his audience's sense of patriotic duty to persuade them that America’s culture surrounding intellectual aptitude needs to be fixed. After Fridman substantiated that the country had had a unique distaste for nerds and dorks, he insisted that his audience needed to initiate change. Fridman upheld that his readers had to change the current American outlook as an act of self-preservation.